AFYE links

The AFYE Listserv: occasional emails of interest to CSUN faculty and staff who work with first-year students. To add (or remove) your name, email Cheryl Spector.

CSUN Garbology bookmark

One fish, two fish; red fish, blue fish: ART 100 at CSUN.

Faculty & staff book groups

The spring and summer 2013 book groups were a great success, thanks to Karen Abramowitz, Jada Augustine, Debbi Mercado, Ronit Sarig, and the many gregarious colleagues who joined in the discussions.

Over 200 paperback copies of Garbology were distributed to CSUN faculty and staff who agreed to the applicable terms and conditions. (For details, read The Deal at the bottom of this l-o-n-g column.) Alas, we have no more free copies.

Resources for Garbology

What can we do with this book at CSUN? Plenty! The matching bookmarks are just a beginning. Consider, for example, the "Nesting Mother and Child Vortex Creatures" (pictured here) created by students in Prof. Edie Pistolesi's ART 100 class. Add your resource to our list!

Special thanks to CSUN faculty members Karen Abramowitz, Debbi Mercado, and Ronit Sarig, who shared many of these resources (and the events in the left column) during their spring book groups.

"Nineteen-year-old student develops ocean clean-up array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic from the world's oceans": read the story

Picking Up by anthropologist Robin Nagle (2013): a book about the New York Department of Sanitation. The book is also the subject of a short article by Lawrence Biemiller in The Chronicle of Higher Education (8 March 2013): "'Dr. Garbage' Studies Unsung Local Tribe." (A31 print edition).

"Sustainable Dave" ( Dave Chameides) kept all of his trash and recycling in his basement for a year in order to better understand his waste footprint. He blogs at 365 Days of Trash, teaches an environmental seminar called "Chasing Sustainability," and is working on a book called "365 Days of Solutions." He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two kids, and yes, he is still married.
He kept all trash in the basement, and was forced to make choices because he didn’t have a lot of space. His trash ended up in the Connecticut Garbage Museum, which is now closed.
Dave's blog: http://365daysoftrash.blogspot.com/. Article about his collection of trash: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/my-exhibit-...-in-the-museum-of-trash

"Trashbags You Won't Throw Out": New York Times article (10/9/2013) about major fashion design houses (Marc Jacobs, Lanvin, and others) and the latest trend: garbage as fashion. (The article offerss a link to part of Zoolander, the movie which "introduced the concept of a garbage-inspired fashion collection.")

"One Plastic Beach." Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang, artists, have been collecting art from one beach at the Point Reyes National Seashore for over ten years--and making art out of it. (Note: this video lacks captions. Could a U100 or other interested class provide them?) Thanks to Ellyn Gersh Lerner for the link to the video.

The Matador Exchange: "The Matador Exchange is a market for items from furniture, electronics, and sports equipment to textbooks and school supplies. Based on sites like Freecycle and Craigslist, the Matador Exchange seeks to encourage students to reduce the waste of unneeded items that may be of use to other students." (New for fall 2013.)

"One Plastic Beach." Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang, artists, have been collecting art from one beach at the Point Reyes National Seashore for over ten years--and making art out of it. (Note: this video lacks captions. Could a U100 or other interested class provide them?) Thanks to Ellyn Gersh Lerner for the link to the video.

The deal: free copies of Garbology for CSUN faculty and staff

About those free copies of Garbology: beginning in March 2013, CSUN faculty or staff were invited to request a free copy of Garbology from Cheryl Spector. In return, faculty and staff agreed to speak about the book with at least one new CSUN freshman in fall 2013. Short conversations satisfied the terms of this agreement so long as the conversation included a reference to the book (and/or Freshman Convocation).